The High Line? No, The High Bridge!

View towards Manhattan. The tower was needed to equalize water pressure.

The oldest river crossing in New York City is now the newest. The 1848 High Bridge that spans the Harlem River and links upper Manhattan to The Bronx has recently emerged from a multi-year, $61.8 million renovation. It re-opened to the public on June 9th. Whether the initial enthusiasm of using this restored public space can reenergize a neighborhood will take years to find out, however, for the moment this project is bringing tourists and residents to an area that was previously known only to locals and intrepid urban explorers. Will it spur new economic activity to an ungentrified area? Is that indeed what is wanted or needed? Questions to be answered later.

For the moment however, the opening of the High Bridge inspires reflection upon its past rather than shines a light on its future. With an arched design inspired by Roman aqueducts, the High Bridge was part of the Croton Aqueduct system that brought fresh water from Westchester County, north of the city to Manhattan. A pedestrian walkway was added above the water pipes not quite 20 years after the bridge’s opening, creating in some people’s eyes the City’s first “High Line.” At the time, it was a generator of social and economic activity, a focus that attracted people as well as artists and photographers. Hotels and restaurants sprouted up around it. Around the turn of the 20th century, the waterfront was an active recreational area and ferries plied the shores.

Plaques recounting the history are installed in the walkway. This one depicts its heyday as a destination.

The area’s recreational allure diminished over time, a result of pollution and changing tastes and times. The construction of roads and public housing further isolated the neighborhood. By the time the bridge closed for safety reasons about 45 years ago, it was the locals, not the general public who noticed.

Today the High Bridge is used by those who live in the neighborhood and need a quick way to walk to either borough and by curiosity-seekers like myself who read about its reopening. Its claim to fame as a destination for the time being is the unusual perspective of the river and shoreline not easily seen otherwise. For me, one of the most striking things was the view of the Robert Moses-inspired ramps that loop through the Bronx. But the walkway is still so new, that there are no vendors yet to dispense cold drinks or ice cream.

View of Bronx roads from the High Bridge

The High Bridge connects a New York City park divided by the river around West 173rd Streets. Both sides have been neglected. Home to a public pool and playing fields on the Manhattan side, High Bridge Park has been an over-grown dumping ground and homeless encampment that is now being slowly reforested and reclaimed by Bette Midler’s New York Restoration Project and local volunteers who work with the parks department. It is also being integrated into a waterfront bikeway.

The High Bridge was part of one of the major engineering feats of the 19th century, the Croton Aqueduct system. Water coursed through iron pipes surrounded by masonry from the Old Croton Dam in Westchester County, 41 miles north of the City to a reservoir located where the Great Lawn and Turtle Pond in Central Park currently are and then to a distribution reservoir where the main branch of the New York Public Library and Bryant Park now stand. The gravity-feed aqueduct opened in 1842 and was used until 1955.

Originally the bridge had masonry arches across. A steel span was constructed in the 1920s for navigation. (Library of Congress, Prints & Photogaraphs Division, Detroit Publishing Company Collection)

A 200 foot high water tower stands guard at the entrance to the High Bridge from the Manhattan side. It was built in 1872 to equalize water pressure from the aqueduct and contained a 47,000 gallon water tank. When no longer needed by 1949, a seven acre reservoir was replaced by the park and pool. Although it has been restored, there are rumors about the tower’s being refurbished in order to be accessible to the public. It is a New York City landmark as well as listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The steel span replaced the masonry arches in the 1920s to allow boats to pass.

A few days after my visit to the High Bridge, I overheard two women on the subway talk about their visit. “What’s to point?” one asked the other. “You just go over the bridge and then you go back.” “Yes, but it’s really nice that it’s there,” said the other.

About Carol Berens

Carol Berens is an architect and author in New York City. She has been writing for UrbDeZine since 2011.

The germ of the idea for her most recent book, Redeveloping Industrial Sites, started with a short article on the new Paris parks way back in 1998 for the now-defunct TWA Ambassador. Through visits to these parks and interviews with the architects and city planners, she saw how Paris’ industrial past was being transformed into not only into new parks, but new neighborhoods. Of course, Paris isn’t the only city that is confronted with the ruins of its earlier industry. The exploration into how other countries and cities including New York are continuing to reinvent themselves has been an interesting and fun journey.

She is the author of Hotel Bars and Lobbies (Mc-Graw Hill, 1996), articles on design and urban issues for various magazines as well as the Associate Editor for The Paris Times, a former English-language monthly newspaper published in Paris.

A former vice president at the Empire State Development Corporation, she led efforts in the land development of several upstate mixed-use communities as well as the sale and development of surplus state-owned land. Carol received M. Arch from Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation and worked as an architect at Marcel Breuer Architect in Paris, France, and at Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates in New York City.

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Thank you for taking the effort to write an article about the HIgh Bridge; its history, its restoration, and its potential future value. The development of this immediate area of Highbridge Park and the High Bridge and surrounding areas will take time as there is an enormous amount of work still to be completed. Yes, the Water Tower, which, by the way, was used to get adequate water pressure to the higher elevation buildings in northern Manhattan, is scheduled for renovation. Additional paths within the park to make it more accessible and more of a pleasurable experience are also on the drawing board. The grand stairway on the Bronx end of the High Bridge is also scheduled for reconstruction over the next 3 years. There are efforts to have the stairway on the Manhattan side also re-engineered to allow more easy access to the bridge for pedestrians and bicyclists directly from the esplanade at 173rd St. For anyone interested in following the progress of this important long term project I highly recommend looking at highbridgeparkdevelopment.blogspot.com